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[size=5][b]Westeros: Total War FAQ[/b][/size]
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[b]Q: What is Westeros: Total War?[/b]
A: Westeros: Total War is a modification for Medieval 2 Total War. It is based on the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' (ASoIaF) novels by George R.R. Martin.

[b]Q: Is the Kingdoms expansion required to play the mod?[/b]
A: No.

[b]Q: What's the scope of the map?[/b]
A: The map encompasses the continent of Westeros. The Eastern Continent or the Summer Isles are not included due to the lack of information we have about these lands. The northernmost province of the mod is Last Hearth. This means that the Night's Watch and the Wildlings are not included.

[b]Q: Why is there no Night's Watch faction?[/b]
A: They would be very boring to play. Sitting in your castles and waiting for Wildling attacks does not constitute entertaining gameplay. It could also be that the Stark AI attacks you and that's totally untrue to the books. Furthermore there is no proper way of portraying the Wall in M2TW.

[b]Q: What is the setting of the mod?[/b]
A: The mod begins right after the execution of Eddard Stark. This turns on the war locomotive for several factions. Tully is under attack by the Lannisters, Stark wants to take revenge, Renly and Stannis want to seize the Iron Throne while Greyjoy, Arryn and Martell are biding their time.

[b]Q: What are the factions?[/b]
A: King on the Iron Throne (Joffrey), King in Storm's End (Renly), King in Dragonstone (Stannis), House Stark, House Tully, House Lannister, House Arryn, House Greyjoy, House Tyrell, House Martell.

[b]Q: Are there rebel territories or does every province belong to a faction?[/b]
A: There are several rebel provinces. In the books the faction leaders can give orders to their lords bannermen but it's not guaranteed that they will follow these orders. Lord Robb Stark cannot just walk into the Dreadfort and command its soldiers nor can he confiscate all the Dreadfort's income. But they will respect him and will do what he says as long as their lord, Roose Bolton, approves.
This subtle system is impossible to translate in M2TW. It's either full control or no control at all. So that's why we decided to give most of the provinces to the factions but not all. Of course the most insurgent castles of the books are given a rebel status (Brightwater Keep, The Twins, The Dreadfort, etc.).

[b]Q: How is the starting diplomacy?[/b]
A: There are three main alliances: Stark-Tully, Lannister-King Joffrey and Tyrell-King Renly. Lannister and Joffrey are at war with Tyrell, Renly, Stannis, Stark and Tully. Tyrell and Renly are at war with Lannister, Joffrey and Stannis. Stark and Tully are at war with Lannister and Joffrey. The other factions are neutral.

[b]Q: Will the factions be reskinned?[/b]
A: Reskinning is a huge task and the team size of this mod is small. We are aiming to do what's within our limit but we cannot guarantee that every faction will have a proper skin. At the moment the Starks, the Tully's and the King on the Iron Throne faction have been reskinned.

[b]Q: Will you make new unit models?[/b]
A: No, not for the first release.

[b]Q: Why is Jaime not the heir of Tywin?[/b]
A: In AFFC we learn that Jaime is not interested in ruling Casterly Rock. Cersei succeeds Tywin and becomes the Lady of Casterly Rock. However in M2TW female faction heirs are not possible so that rules her out. She is in Joffrey's family tree anyway. Eventually we opted for Kevan as faction heir. He's suitable.

[b]Q: What about Tyrion?[/b]
A: Tyrion is a general in the Joffrey faction.

[b]Q: Why is Asha not a Greyjoy Princess?[/b]
A: Can you imagining marrying off Asha to some nobleman? Or the AI doing this? Asha who is clad in mail and commands her own ship? Nah, we opted for letting Asha out.

[b]Q: What happened to Sansa and Arya?[/b]
A: Sansa is a captive in King's Landing while Arya has gone missing. Because this cannot be translated into the game we had to let them go.

[b]Q: What about the Hound, Varys, Lyn Corbray, Jon Umber, Euron Greyjoy, Oberyn Martell, etc.?[/b]
A: The Hond is a general while Varys is an ancillary. The others are generals as well. There are many characters from the books that you'll meet in the mod, either in ancillary or in family member/general form.

[b]Q: Can settlements/castles be converted or upgraded?[/b]
A: No. The reason for this is that it would be silly to convert, let's say Harrenhal or Storm's End to a city. They are castles and castles they'll remain. Upgrading is also out otherwise you would see Deepwood Motte, a minor stronghold, becoming as large as a citadel after 180 turns. Or White Harbor eventually having a larger population than King's Landing, the realm's capital. This means that you can carefully plan which settlements you surely want to capture or which you definitely don't want to lose. In vanilla it's not a big deal if you lose your capital because other castles/settlements can produce the same units or have a similar income. But in Westeros:TW you'll see it hurts!

[b]Q: Are there region-specific units?[/b]
A: Yes. Several units can only be produced in certain locations (ie. Ironmen Raiders, Winterfell Guards, Westerland Pikemen, Knights of the Reach, etc.).

[b]Q: Will there be new ancillaries?[/b]
A: Yes, all the ancillaries from the vanilla game will be gone. You will be able to acquire a very diverse retinue of over 180 different ancillaries consisting of court attendants, couriers, mistresses, whores, thugs, maesters, champions, squires, merchants, septons, and more. Several ancillaries will be faction-specific. Others will be unique because they are characters from the books.

[b]Q: Can a character acquire items?[/b]
A: Yes, if you are lucky enough you'll be able to collect swords or even a Valyrian blade which you can pass on to the generals worthy of wielding it.

[b]Q: Can a character acquire nobility titles?[/b]
A: Yes, you can assign lordships of the provinces you hold or have conquered to your generals. For the holder of King's Landing there will be a special title.

<Note: this FAQ is not finished yet>

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[quote]Q: Why is Asha not a Greyjoy Princess?
A: Can you imagining marrying off Asha to some nobleman? Or the AI doing this? Asha who is clad in mail and commands her own ship? Nah, we opted for letting Asha out.[/quote]

I understand your reasons. But if in a given moment you feel the need for more Ironmen generals, I'd make her one. There is already a trait in Vanilla for priests reflecting a female disguissed ("acting/behauvoring as" for this mod) as a man.

[quote]Q: Are there rebel territories or does every province belong to a faction?
A: There are several rebel provinces. In the books the faction leaders can give orders to their lords bannermen but it's not guaranteed that they will follow these orders.[/quote]

Have you thought about Beric's men? By Eddard's death they had already rebelled after failing to capture Gregor. A rebel army leaded by him (not big, but with good units as several knights joined him and folks love him) , placed in the central provinces. This way you will slow down a bit the physical contact between Joffrey and Tywin's borders.

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[quote name='Inda' post='1379361' date='Jun 1 2008, 18.32']Have you thought about Beric's men? By Eddard's death they had already rebelled after failing to capture Gregor. A rebel army leaded by him (not big, but with good units as several knights joined him and folks love him) , placed in the central provinces. This way you will slow down a bit the physical contact between Joffrey and Tywin's borders.[/quote]

Good idea. That sounds kinda cool

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Is it possible to make Tully vassals of Winterfell at the beggining? This way Robb would have military access and their alliance would last more. Afterall, Edmure gave an oath to Robb and by thos way you avoid uniting them in a single faction.

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[quote name='Inda' post='1382274' date='Jun 3 2008, 18.02']Is it possible to make Tully vassals of Winterfell at the beggining? This way Robb would have military access and their alliance would last more. Afterall, Edmure gave an oath to Robb and by thos way you avoid uniting them in a single faction.[/quote]

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Tully and Stark are allies and the beginning in the game and they both have military access. It's included in their alliance.

[quote]I understand your reasons. But if in a given moment you feel the need for more Ironmen generals, I'd make her one. There is already a trait in Vanilla for priests reflecting a female disguissed ("acting/behauvoring as" for this mod) as a man.[/quote]
Asha will remain a female. Otherwise you'll get a "Betrothed: Asha Greyjoy" message of some woman proposing to marry Asha! And then she could have kids. Of course a special custom trait of -20 fertility could be made just for her to make sure she does not make her wife pregnant but still it feels a bit weird... ;) If I want extra generals for the Greyjoys I'll revert to Dunstan Drumm or Andrik the Unsmiling.

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Ya it kinda is a bit wierd, but I think that a Greyjoy Faction without Asha leading would be wierder. I'd go with the infertility trait and hope she doesnt manage to defy the laws of Nature, haha. Although I would love to command Andrik the Unsmiling in a few choice raids against the Roses.

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I have no idea yet, my friend. I remember testing the mod 2 weeks ago and I was playing with Stark. I pressed End Turn, End Turn, etc. over and over again because I wanted to see how the AI developed. At around turn 80 I quit and I must say that the Renly-Tyrell and Lannister-Joffrey alliance was still unbroken. From my impression the Stark-Tully alliance is pretty strong as well. If Stark goes at war, it's always against the nearest non-allied faction... which is Arryn. But Stark is generally not very aggressive beyond the Neck.
But then again, I haven't placed the starting armies yet.
About Asha, we'll see. If popular demand says "We want Asha!' then I'll just make an Asha patch, just like I'll make a Jon Snow patch.

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Their relations are set to good but they deteriorate quickly. The problem for Stark is that they are quickly closed off for further expansion by their friendly neighbours, Arryn and Tully. The M2TW AI is not scripted to kindly wait until a hostile faction takes over one of its border provinces. But we'll see what we can do. It's not that they try to throttle each other from the start.
Regarding those Lannisters, Jaime will start with a strong army near Riverrun (or Golden Tooth).
About that console command, I also remember having it read somewhere but I forgot where or how the exact syntax was. Damn my Alzheimer.

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It's always possible when there is enough demand I suppose. Gampie mentioned the possibility of a separate Jon add-on pack for Jon fans, even though the wall isn't in the current build. Of course, Robert's Rebellion would be much more difficult to implement.

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[quote name='Gampie' post='1413638' date='Jun 24 2008, 18.41']An add-on about Robert's Rebellion? Hmm, that can be interesting. It would certainly change the alliances drastically and add the Targaryens. Clouded the future is... I cannot see if it will be done.[/quote]

Yeah that would be sweet.

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You'd have to change a few thing about the factions. Instead of Joffrey there would be Targaryens, Stannis faction wouldn't exist and Renly's lands would be the Baratheons. The alliances would be Targaryen-Tyrell-Martell, Arryn-Tully-Baratheon-Stark and the un allied factions would be Lannisters and Greyjoys. Of course all the lords names would have to be re-done